System and method for online content licensing and distribution

• US 8,458,099 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2007
• Issued: 06/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: LicenseStream, Inc. (Wright's Media LLC)
• Original Assignee: LicenseStream, Inc. (Wright's Media LLC)
• Inventors: Shear, Jeffrey A., Starosta, Dmitry, Scholnick, Iain
• Primary Examiner(s): Reagan, James A
• Application Number:
  US11/944,051
• Publication Number:
  US 20090132310A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,022 Days
• Field of Search: 705/79
• US Class Current: 705/79
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/027 involving a payment switch or gateway
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

A system and method for online content licensing and distribution is provided. A central website is accessible by content providers and content licensees via the Internet, and allows content providers to upload content to the central website. Licenses can be associated with uploaded content, and one or more licensees for the content can be designated. Royalty distributions can be defined and distributed to one or more recipients, and can be expressed as percentages of collected royalties or dollar amounts. An e-mail is automatically transmitted to a designated licensee which allows the licensee to access the uploaded content, pay for the content, and download the content. Collected payments are automatically distributed to one or more recipients in accordance with the royalty distributions. Suggested license fees for uploaded content can be generated and provided to the content provider, and uploaded content can be published to a third-party publication website or service.

Claims

1. A method for online licensing and distribution of content, comprising:

uploading content to a central website;

associating a license agreement with the content using the central website;

creating a royalty profile by identifying at least one royalty recipient and a royalty percentage for the at least one royalty recipient;

storing the royalty profile at the central website;

processing the content at the central website to determine at least one of a usage category, a usage sub-category, a specific content usage, or a media type associated with the content;

calculating at the central website a suggested license fee for the content based upon the at least one of the usage category, the usage sub-category, the specific content usage, or the media type of the content determined by the central website;

receiving the suggested license fee for the content from the central website;

identifying a licensee of the content using the central website, wherein the central website notifies the licensee that the content is available for download from the central website; and

receiving the suggested license fee when the content is licensed and downloaded by the licensee from the central website, wherein royalty fees are distributed from the suggested license fee in accordance with the royalty profile stored at the central website.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of associating the license agreement to the content further comprises creating a new license agreement using the central website.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of associating the license agreement to the content further comprises selecting a pre-defined license agreement stored at the central web site.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining usage restrictions for the content and storing the usage restrictions at the central website.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising grouping the content with additional content uploaded to the central website.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising associating the additional content with the license agreement.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising associating the additional content with the royalty profile.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising receiving additional license fees when the additional content is licensed and downloaded by the licensee from the central website, wherein additional royalty fees are distributed from the additional license fees in accordance with the royalty profile stored at the central website.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising specifying usage constraints for the content and storing the usage constraints at the central website.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising publishing the content on a third-party website.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of allowing the content provider to associate the license agreement with the content further comprises allowing the content provider to select a pre-defined license agreement stored at the central website.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing the content provider to define usage restrictions for the content and to store the usage restrictions at the central website.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of calculating the suggested license fee further comprise calculating a base price for the content based upon the usage category, the usage sub-category, the specific usage, and the media type associated with the content.

24. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of calculating the suggested license fee further comprises adjusting the base price based upon a license parameter.

14. A method for online content licensing and distribution, comprising:

providing a central website accessible using the Internet;

receiving content from a content provider at the central website;

allowing the content provider to associate a license agreement with the content;

allowing the content provider to create a royalty profile by identifying at least one royalty recipient and a royalty percentage for the at least one royalty recipient;

processing the content at the central website to determine at least one of a usage category, a usage sub-category, a specific content usage, or a media type associated with the content;

calculating at the central website a suggested license fee for the content based upon the at least one of the usage category, the usage sub-category, the specific content usage, or the media type of the content determined by the central website;

allowing the content provider to identify a licensee of the content;

alerting the licensee that the content is available to be licensed;

allowing the licensee to accept the license agreement using the central website;

obtaining the suggested license fee from the licensee through the central website; and

distributing royalty fees from the suggested license fee to the at least one royalty recipient in accordance with the royalty percentage of the royalty profile.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of allowing the content provider to associate the license agreement with the content further comprises allowing the content provider to create the license agreement using the central website.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising allowing the content provider to group the content with additional content uploaded to the central website.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising associating the additional content with the license agreement.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising associating the additional content with the royalty profile.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising licensing the additional content to the licensee.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising collecting additional license fees for the additional content and distributing additional royalty fees to the at least one royalty recipient in accordance with the royalty profile.

21. The method of claim 14, further comprising allowing the user to specify usage constraints for the content and storing the usage constraints at the central website.

22. The method of claim 14, further comprising publishing the content on a third-party website.

23. The method of claim 14, further comprising detecting unauthorized usage of the content using a transactional enforcement system linked to the central website.